Recently, I tried my hand at making my first buffalo horn cup. I say “recently”, although I first started roughing out this horn at Buffalo Days in the summer of 2003. Nevertheless, I finally decided to finish it so that I’d have one less pending project on the “back burner”! (Anybody else have this problem?)

When I say “horn cup”, I am, of course, talking about an Indian-style vessel, one which keeps the basic shape of the horn, as opposed to any kind of a white-man style mug, coffee cup, or goblet. In working on this project, I consulted with my friend Ken Smith, who is an expert Indian-style and mountain man craftsman. After finishing this horn, I discussed it with Iron Wood so as to get additional pointers on how I might add to my technique for my next horn. Both of these men make excellent horns. Thus, the following construction discussion includes insights from both Ken Smith and Iron Wood, as well as the benefits from my own experience as a rank beginner.

Both Ken and Iron Wood work the horn by holding it in their hands, that is, they don’t try to clamp it in a vice, etc. I have read an article in one of the muzzleloading magazines by a powder horn maker which described his fashioning a piece of wood into the shape of the horn core; this he clamps in his vice, then places the horn cap on it to work. This might be handy if you’re going to make a lot of cups or powder horns, although the work goes smoothly by simply holding it.

I did not heat my horn, but, rather, worked it dry, using a combination of the course, rounded part of the hand-rasp, as well as careful use of a table-top belt sander. As you work the horn, you will find a number of uneven spots, as the horn really does not have the nice curved surface that it appeared to have at first glance. I took my time, frequently feeling inside and outside of the horn between my fingers to make sure I wasn’t getting it too thin.

Incidentally, Ken mostly uses the rasp, but occasionally includes the belt sander. His sander is the hand-held type, which he mounts upside down and somewhat at an angle in a large bench vise.

After removing the bumps and ridges with the course, rounded side of the rasp, smooth the surface down with the rasp’s fine teeth. Next, it’s time for polishing. For this, you’ll use a sharp knife, piece of glass, flint, etc. Place the blade perpendicular to the length of the horn and carefully scrape the entire length. I found that, by holding the mouth against my stomach, the blade often chattered and left marks as I brought it to the mouth. I eliminated this by placing the horn on my work bench, holding it by the tip, and scraping away from me. Taking my time with scraping instead of making fast strokes actually helped me do a faster, cleaner job. Make all the scrapes in one direction, whether you scrape from tip to mouth or vice versa.

Note: The horn I used was from an older bull, and it had a lot of big, longitudinal ridges on the inside. In order to clean these up, I used a Dremel tool, the rasp, and a crooked knife – all of which helped remove the large amount of material that constituted the ridges. I didn’t polish the inside but left it fairly smooth after finishing off with the fine teeth of the rasp.

Throughout this project, I wore heavy leather gloves whenever possible. This helped me avoid cutting myself as well as making the horn more comfortable to hold when I heated it to shape the mouth.

Making the horn cup was a lot of fun and only took a few hours (especially because I used the belt sander). I would really appreciate hearing from others who also have done horn work so that I might learn more about this fine art.

NOTE TO TRADITIONALISTS:

If you eschew the modern tools, such as rasp and belt sander, you can make your horn the old way. Get yourself a horn, some flint, and put in for a week of vacation time at your day-job. (What am I saying? REAL Traditionalists wouldn’t have a day job!)